After nearly a year's negotiations, the U.S. and Russian governments finally reached an agree-ment on further reduction and limitation of nuclear weapon arms.

Illustration by Liu Rui. [globaltimes.cn]

The agreement will be signed on April 8, limiting the total number of warheads to less than 1,550. Overall, it is good for world peace and stability as well as the prevention of nuclear proliferation, but we shouldn't be over-optimistic about the treaty.

The motivations behind the treaty are clear. Russia is opposed to the U.S. missile defense system and its deployment in Eastern Europe. The U.S. continues to expand the scope of the missile defense system, which constitutes a real threat to Russia in Eastern Europe.

With 95 percent of the world's total nuclear warheads, the U.S. and Russia are the world's two largest nuclear powers. Russia has more than 14,000 missiles and the U.S. has more than 9,000. This remains one of the few areas where the former U.S.'s national strength is as great as ever, so the U.S. is active in working toward compromise in this field.